Jane Austen One of the British

legends

Name: Hodine AnaMaria

Professor: Matei Mirandolina
Why did I chose Jane Austen?
She became known in this century for her work, especially for
Pride and Prejudice. Even though there wasnt a lot of information
about her, I managed to find the most interesting facts and I will
present them in the next slides.

She was an artist who expressed herself

through writing, who gave her readers
amazing stories to think about and
analyze. She was caught in her novels,
poems and stories and even though she
had the chance to escape, she didnt
want to. She was in love with her work
and nothing else mattered.
Who is she?
Jane Austen is an English novelist. She was born on December 16th,
1775 in Seventon, Hampshire, England. She wasnt very known during
her time, but after 1869, her love novels gained popularity also her
reputation skyrocketed in the 20th century. A few letters survived
along with the biographical notes that her family members wrote. Also,
during her lifetime she wrote approximately 3.000 letters, but about
160 still exist. A big part of those letters were written to Cassandra,
Janes older sister. Cassandra burned a great part of the letters or cut
pieces out of some of them in 1863 because she didnt want the letters
to fall in the hands of the relatives, giving the fact that Jane had some
forthright comments about the neighbors or family members.
Letter written by Jane to her sister, Cassandra.
Who is her family?
She was the daughter of Reverend George Austen of the Seventon
rectory and Cassandra Austen of the Leigh family. She had six
brothers and just one sister, named Cassandra whom she was very
close with along with Henry which played the part of Janes literary
agent in the later stage of her writing.

Jane Austens family tree

How did she started writing?
In 1783, at the age of 8, Jane and her sister, Cassandra, were sent off to
boarding school, at Oxford. They were sent back because they caught
typhus and jane almost died.
At the age of 11, or earlier, Jane started writing poems for her family in
which she parodied daily life. She later brought together 29 of her
early works, containing her work between 1789-1793, putting them
into three notebooks entitled: Volume the First, Volume the
Second and Volume the Third.
After that, she decided she wanted to be a professional writer and the
first step into doing that was made a year later when she wrote a
parody named The History of England which included illustrations
drawn by Cassandra, and now, all the writings (plays, poems,
notebooks, short stories) from her adolescence are referred to as
Juvenilia.
How did her love life was?
When you hear Jane Austen you hear Tom Lefroy as well.
Thomas Langlois Lefroy was a politician and a judge. He was born in
Limerick, Ireland and he had an outstanding academic record at Trinity
College in Dublin. He visited Seventon during December 1795 and
January 1796 and he met Jane at a ball or at a neighborhood gathering
and, from her letter to Cassandra, it seems that the two of them spent
some considerable time together. Unfortunately, their love was
impossible and Lefroys family did everything that was necessary to
send Tom away and break them up.
Even though, in November 1798, Lefroy was still crossing
Janes mind, giving the fact that she wrote letters about him to her
sister, and she had tea with one of his relatives, she couldnt ask
anything about him.
4 interesting facts about Janes life

1. She was engaged for one night, even though

she never married
Harris Bigg-Whiter popped the question on December
2, 1802, when Jane and her sister were visiting longtime friends,
Alethea and Catherine Bigg at Manydown Park. He was five-
and-a-half years younger than Jane and he was described as
very plain in person-awkward.
Austen changed her mind overnight, refusing the
proposal the next morning and leaving Manydown immediately.
She chose to remain single and concentrate on her first love:
writing.
2. She imagined her characters lives continuing after finishing a
novel

Some of the most interesting revelations related to Emma,

Mr. Woodhouse surviving Emmas marriage to Mr. Knightly, but he
kept his daughter and son-in-law at Hartfield for two years. Also, her
nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh confessed in A memoir of Jane
Austen that if she was asked she would tell precious details about her
characters after the end of the writing.
3.The surnames of some of the Austens characters can be
found within the Wentworth family

Austen used Wentworth genealogy tree to inspire for some

of her characters names while writing Pride and Prejudice. Also,
Jane used Wentworth family name in the novel Emma: Robert
Wentworth married a rich heiress Also, the Wentworth family
crossed Janes family tree. Her mother, Cassandra Austen was the great
grandniece of Cassandra Willoughby and the first Duke of Chandos.
4. Austen took her writing very seriously
She began writing plays, stories and poetry when she was 12
years old and as she grew up she contoured her writing technique.
Austens family members performed plays for each other, plus the
comments that her family made about them, made Jane learn more
about writing.
From the letters sent to her sister and other family members,
its clearly that Jane was proud of her work, enjoying discussions
about her latest work or a novels progress.
Who helped her?
After completing their formal education at the boarding
school, Jane and Cassandra returned home permanently and Jane
started writing First Impressions. This writing, nowadays, carries the
name of Pride and Prejudice, one of the most popular novels. The
first version was completed around 1799.
George Austen was always a supportive father and he
wanted to publish Janes work through Thomas Cadell, a publisher that
lived in London. Unfortunately, Cadell immediately rejected the work.
It still remains unknown whether Jane knew about her fathers
tentative of publishing her writings or not.
Philarte Chasles was the first French critic that took
Austen into sight but he discharged her as a writer, calling her boring
and imitative. Besides Chasles, Jane was ignored in France until 1878.
In the 19th century Austen had many admirers who considered
themselves part of the literary elite and some of them even compared
her to Shakespeare.
What did she wrote?
Novels: Juvenilia Volume the First:
Frederic and Elfrida
Sense and Sensibility
Edgar and Emma
Pride and Prejudice Jack and Alice
Mansfield Park Henry and Eliza
The Adventures of Mr. Harley
Emma
Sir William Mountague
Northanger Abbey (posthumous publication) Memoirs of Mr. Clifford
Persuasion (posthumous publication) Amelia Webster
The Beautifull Cassandra [sic]
Lady Susan (posthumous publication)
The visit
Juvenilia Volume the Second: The Mystery
Love and Friendship [sic] The Three Sisters
Lesley Castle A beautiful description
The History of England The generous Curate
A collection of Letters Ode to Pity
The female philosopher
The first Act of Comedy Juvenilia Volume the Third:
A Letter from a Young lady Evelyn
A Tour through Wales Catherine, or The Bower
A Tale
How and where did she died?
At the age of 41, in 1816, Jane
started having symptoms of what
some say it might have been
Addison disease but she ignored the
signs. As her illness progressed, she
couldnt walk and she had a massive
lack of energy. She struggled to
continue her writing in a normal
place, editing older works and
starting a new one, The Brothers,
published under the name of
Sanditon. She got into the point
where she couldnt write anymore,
putting down the pen on 18th March
1817. Jane Austen died on July 18,
1817, in Winchester, Hampshire,
England.

The house where Jane Austen spent her last days and died